Out of the Past: June 5

1999

Dr. Dan Tallent, Cape Girardeau schools superintendent who will leave his job here at the end of June, says controversy over where to relocate elementary school boundaries and repeated delays in the completion of the new Blanchard Elementary School have kept students in limbo most of the year regarding which school they will attend next fall; while the issue was settled for many students when the school board adopted a firm set of boundaries in April, requests to consider a phase-in of the boundaries by allowing students to remain at their home school means more than 150 students still are unsure of which school they will attend next fall.

A high pressure system spreading over much of the southern United States is responsible for the high heat and humidity that are giving the region its first taste of summer; the temperature reached 90 degrees at 4 p.m. yesterday in Cape Girardeau, and the relative humidity was 61%; the combination created a heat index of 100 degrees.

1974

City manager W.G. Lawley says he will recommend to the Cape Girardeau City Council tonight that he be authorized to construct eight new tennis courts at the locations proposed by the council; at its May meeting the council authorized a contract to construct four tennis courts at the base of Cherry Hill in Capaha Park and two courts each in Indian and Missouri parks; however, the City Park Board has urged the council to reconsider that decision, saying it is “in conflict with the park master plan” prepared by professional planners.

WASHINGTON — Southeast Missouri flood control projects totaling $1,860,000 are included in the public works bill approved Tuesday by the House Appropriations Committee; one of the major projects funded by the bill is a study of flood control and floodplain use in the Cape Girardeau-Jackson area; the bill earmarks $200,000 for the study of nine creeks in and near Cape Girardeau and Jackson and portions of the Diversion Channel south of Cape Girardeau, including Cape LaCroix, Hubble, Indian, Juden, Sloan, Ramsey, Ranney, Flora and Scism.

1949

Cape Girardeau County and district farmers, their work lagging further and further behind, are hoping the continued rain of the past three weeks will come to a halt so they can take to the fields for cultivation and, in some instances, replanting of crops; weather records show that in the three-week period beginning May 15, Cape Girardeau has had 6.40 inches of rain; there was measurable rainfall on 13 of the 21 days in the period and a trace of rain on two other days.

A babe, his parentage unknown and abandoned in an automobile in Sikeston, is receiving care at Community Hospital as an investigation gets underway; the baby, 5 or 6 days old, was found Friday night at 11 on the front seat of her car by Mrs. T.H. Grady; the sleeping child, a boy, was dressed only in a shirt and a diaper made from an old gown and was wrapped in a small blanket.

1924

Sixty men of First Baptist Church sat down to dinner last night to discuss plans for the fund drive to finance construction of a modern edifice on the lot the church owns on West Broadway; the dinner was served by the women of the church in the Masonic banquet hall, and it was “a typically Baptist dinner — as fine as could be spread on a table”; Dr. Paul Williams, W.C. Ballard and the Rev. J. Pendleton Scruggs, the pastor, all agreed the project can be funded without difficulty and without burdening anyone in the membership.

With the mercury climbing to a sweltering 90 degrees, Cape Girardeans welcome the opening of the municipal pool in Fairgrounds Park in the evening; recent cool weather kept officials from opening the swimming pool last month.

Southeast Missourian librarian Sharon Sanders compiles the information for the daily Out of the Past column. She also writes a blog called “From the Morgue” that showcases interesting historical stories from the newspaper. Check out her blog at www.semissourian.com/history.